Muppets with Disabilities

Hi all, I'm trying to brush up (or jog the memory) on the Muppets with Special Abilities.

I know of the Muppet in Mexico that is to have HIV but are there others like Deaf, physically disabled or the like?

I'm very interested in how the various shows introduce this to children and Adults as well.
If you're able to identify which ones, can you specify which show/ country or language?

Plus I have a friend who is a school teacher and I'd love for him to play these for his elementary school kids once clips are found.

Thanks in advance for any information you find!
Michele

The only ones I know of are from Sesame Street: the Two-Headed Monster (Siamese twins) and Forgetful Jones (lack of short term memory).

On the Canadian SS, there's a girl Muppet named Katie, who's in a wheelchair.

On TMS there was a guy named Senor Boffy who was a little deaf. And Statler and Waldorf occasionally have problems with their hearing aids.

Thats interesting you ask because i ntoiced that american SS doesnt have many the Two headed monster i think was a more monster affect than thinking if it as a disability.

Personally I think it's a shame that there are Muppets in other countries' versions of SS that have a disability or a disease like HIV, but not in the US. Kids here are affected by those same things, and the fact that the American SS is pretty much ignoring it (except for Linda, the deaf woman) has got to be discrimination of some sort, or something like that.

But just think of how many fuzzy faced kids can really relate to the Muppets. If Jo-jo the Dog Faced Boy were still alive today.. why Sesame Street would be the place he'd want to live.

Also, think of all the kids who have a different color nose than the rest of their face. And all the kids who have hair that's as fluffy as ostrich feathers. No other program on earth relates to kids with those kind of features. That's why the Muppets are cutting edge. They relate to kids who have diseases we've never heard of yet.

Here's something to think about. Most muppets don't have legs! That's a pretty major disability. Some of them have wires growing out of their wrists. Cookie Monster has some major stigmatism or something. Big Bird might have some kind of strange glandular disease with his huge height.

Nah, we've got our share of diseases. You just have to open your eyes and see.

I think the beginning part of Captcroutons is pretty funny.
The open your eyes part is a little off maybe?

I was just wondering if kids are introduced to the "plight" of people. Not that it has to be introduced by kids shows, I mean that's what parents are for but, for those who don't have parents or for kids in classes relating in a group to death, paralysis, disease, it can be a way for them to learn together and learn to be considerate and understand it. Eh, you know what I mean.

Recently on "Sesame Street" they brought in a new kid (Emily) who has braces on her legs and needs a walker to move around, and they had her meeting Maria, Big Bird, Telly (Emily is also a Triangle Lover), Elmo (Emily had a goldfish too), and Oscar. At the end, everyone sang "Sing", with minimal mention of Emily's leg problems.

they had a girl in a wheel chair a few years back

Sorry,

Did I get a little carried away? Maybe I did.

Also did you notice that Elmo is A.D.D. and that Captain Vegetable is lactose intolerant. Okay, I just made it up, but it might be true. You just don't see the meds they take backstage.

Maybe what I'm thinking is that a personality shouldn't be based on "He's the handicapped guy." or "she's the one with cancer." I would say most people with obvious disabilities would say, "I would rather people know me for me, than for my cerebral palsy."

I'm prone to exxagerate to prove my point. I'm also prone to spell exagerate wrong because I don't know if it's one "X" or two. Two looks better.

Markus

exaggerate

I'm slow but I like the croutons humor. (like the third person talk? I learned from Puck).
I prefer people get to know me before they say "look at the girl with the third eye". I get what you mean, makes sense.

I'd like to see what they could do with a.d.d., that'd be awesome, have a muppet losing its train of thought constantly. What a frustrating show! hahahahha, sounds mean but I have it so I can say it. I'm not sharing my meds though.

LOL, Anyway....

Thank ya ma'am.

Glad you like my humor. I consider myself a good-natured cynic. I would like to see a muppet with narcolepsy. (Again with the spelling) Thank you for helping me with exaggerate. Actually that looks the best of all. Who'da thunk that I had it wrong on both counts.

Anyway, I met a guy with narcolepsy. which for those who don't know, is a sleep disorder that I understand causes you to nod off and sleep and random times. He was real funny about it and told us awful stories in amusing ways. I think that could be a great muppet skit if done tastefully.

While not created as a "teaching tool", if we want to list Muppets with disabilities, there's Blind Pew.

Seriously though, Sesame Street has been fantastic over it's history - in fact one of the best shows on television, childrens' show or otherwise - in terms of featuring people with disabilities. It's just that they rarely use Muppets, they use human characters...and usually the actor (or celebrity) has it in real life, as opposed to "playing a part"

BTW, not related to the Henson's (it was founded by Barbara Aiyello (sp?)), there was a great puppetry troupe in the 80's known as Kids on the Block that featured large puppets where each had a different disability - blind, cerebral palsy, deaf, etc. I had the honor of puppeteering for them from age 10-13 which was my first professional puppetry/performing experience.

...stepping back into silly mode, CaptCrouton, thinking about narcoleptic Muppets, there was Professor Hastings...

I don't remember Professor Hastings. Is that SS or Muppet Show? It doesn't ring a bell at all.